A Memory Out of Place and Time
by Onileo
Summary: A little drabble written for a Christmas prompt exchange. Kisame and Hinata have company at Nami's on a snowy day. Fluffiness.


A Memory Out of Place and Time

The window in front of him was white when morning drew Kisame from sleep. For a brief moment of disorientation he thought he was in Kirigakure again, watching the never ending fog drift by. Then he sensed Hinata, sitting up on the bed behind him. Turning his head slightly, he watched her out of the corner of his eye. She had her half of the blanket wrapped around her otherwise bare shoulders, her delicate hands clutching the hem as she stared out the same window. When she noticed he was awake, she glanced down at him, her hair falling around her in a messy waterfall, a serene smile on her face.

"Look, Kisame, it's snowing."

Sitting up on one elbow, he looked outside to see that not only was it snowing, it was pouring the stuff, adding a fresh crystalline layer to the foot or so that was already on the ground. The sun was nowhere in sight, banished behind the dark gray clouds that blanketed the sky. It must not have been overly cold, because a lighter blanket of fog hung in the middle atmosphere, clinging to the trees and contours of the delta, thickening to a wall of white over the ocean. Disinterested in the monochromatic world beyond, he grunted in agreement before returning to his prone position, one arm moving on its own to wrap around Hinata's waist.

Instead of taking the subtle hint and curling up against him, she continued to watch the scene out the window. After a few minutes Kisame gave up on being conscious and closed his eyes. He was just about asleep again when her soft voice penetrated his senses.

"My mother loved the snow." There was a long pause, then she continued, "One of my aunts told me that it snowed the day I was born, that Konoha was covered up with it, and that it was the only day that year that it did so."

Kisame cracked an eyelid to watch her, curiosity over her suddenly nostalgic mood hidden behind a slight frown. It was unusual for her to talk about her childhood, and he wasn't sure what he should say in return. While he knew she had had a hard time growing up, his own raising was far less pleasant than hers, and the majority of it wasn't worth talking about anyway. Thankfully, he was saved from a response as Nami's voice drifted in to them from the living room,

"Kisame, Hinata! Get up, we have company!"

Exhaling, half in relief at being distracted and half in irritation at being disturbed, he squeezed Hinata's waist to break her out of her daydreaming. She gave him a mournful look before she abandoned her blanket and started to dress. Not really wanting to get up yet either, he lazily tracked her movements as she moved around the room before voices beyond their closed door prompted him to join her. Immediately missing the warmth of his bed as the cold floor assaulted his bare feet, he made quick work of throwing his clothes on. He followed Hinata as she opened the door to the warmer common rooms of the house, where they found Nami in her rocking chair, Tora, his wife and children on the couch, and Hitomi and Ryusei sitting at the kitchen table.

As soon as he noticed she was in the room, Ryusei hurtled himself into Hinata's arms, his cheeks still pink from being outside.

"Hinata-sama! Snow!"

Smiling at the child's exuberance, Hinata held him until his frolicking threatened to make him fall. She set him down, where he immediately began tugging on her shirt as a sudden idea lit his face.

"Hinata-sama! Snowman!"

"You want to build a snowman?"

Ryusei nodded vigorously as Tora's twin girls, who had been clinging to their mother up until now, perked up at the idea. They left the couch to stand by their new playmate, staring up at her in silence, hope in their eyes.

"I think that's a wonderful idea." Nami interjected as she lifted herself from her chair. "Why don't you and Hitomi take the kids out to play, the boys can bring in some more wood for the fire while Tora's hime and I make us all a hot breakfast?"

Unable to deny the three children in front of her, not to mention her mentor, Hinata nodded in agreement and went to get her coat. She barely had it on her shoulders when she was half-dragged out the door, smiling the whole way as Hitomi scolded Ryusei for being overly zealous. Tora was behind her, and Kisame brought up the rear.

It didn't take long for them to get the wood in; Kisame had a large pile ricked up just around the side of the house. After his impromptu chore was finished, he returned to the porch. Squeals and giggles rent the air as the children darted around Hinata as she bent over her task, tossing snowballs at each other. Occasionally she laughed as well, especially when the horseplay devolved into random bits of snow being tossed blindly and only scoring a hit by accident. His attention caught by the happy scene, Kisame moved to the edge of the porch and sat down. He wanted to be close to Hinata, but it just didn't feel right, joining them out in the pristine whiteness. So he contented himself with watching her from his perch on the front steps.

As he found himself doing more often, he followed her every movement with the attention of a starving predator. He drank in her lines and contours, her gentle grace, the way she sounded, her scent as it was carried to him on the crisp air. She was so beautiful...

Suddenly, as if he couldn't stand to look too long, his gaze dropped, idly landing to study his own calloused hands. Their rough texture, the bluish pigment so different from everyone else, the invisible blood, innocent and not, that should be dripping from them. He was a freak, and not just that, he was a freak that was wanted dead by the governments of every major country, and most of the minor ones. People were afraid of him, even when he didn't want them to be. Granted it was justified, but he was still human, with the desire to belong. And if it wasn't for Nami and Hinata, he wouldn't even know what that was like.

Shifting his attention back to her, he watched her as she lifted her newly rolled ball of snow and placed it on top of the first one. Her breath hung around her in a frozen cloud and her breath deepened with her effort. Feeling his eyes on her, she glanced over at him, a secretive smile flitting across her lips. He nodded to her in return, the corner of his lips lifting in a lopsided smirk. He was grateful for her, for sure, but he just didn't understand what she saw in him. Sure, he was a top notch shinobi, but that had never seemed to stack up with others. And this slip of an unrecognized kunoichi was more than he would ever be. She must be crazy. Either that or she saw something in him that just wasn't there...

"I'd give my next three mission fees to know what's going through your head right now."

Kisame startled at the sound of Tora's voice. The older shinobi reflexively stepped back as he whirled around. Realizing there was no danger, Kisame relaxed and Tora joined him on the porch steps. With a genuine smile, he gestured to the scene in the yard as he continued. "Obviously, it's about Hinata-sama, but what has you so fascinated at the moment?"

"I just don't see how she does it."

"What?"

Catching himself before he revealed the true nature of his thoughts, Kisame moved the conversation into safer waters. "How she can remain so innocent and happy after all she has seen."

Tora gave him an assessing stare, then shrugged nonchalantly. "My wife is a civilian. The most she has to deal with is the neighbor's dog invading her garden." His laughter suddenly burst into the air, hearty and light. "She's begged me countless times to make the obnoxious mutt disappear."

"And you refuse to? It's just a dog."

"Nah. I told her to take an innocent's life went against my nindo. Besides, it keeps her busy. She doesn't worry so much about me when I'm gone."

"Sounds like you have a great life."

Tora shrugged again. "I guess so." Then his grinned widened. "Ah, who am I kidding. I wouldn't trade what I have to be a gifted ninja with the most powerful bloodline limit in the world. They make what I do for a living tolerable. I forget the bloodshed, the betrayal, the dirt, the sadness, all of it as soon as I walk in the door. It's as close to normal a guy like me will ever get."

"Yeah. Too bad I'll never know what it's like."

"For such a notoriously stubborn shinobi, you sure give up easily."

Kisame gave him a dark look, but Tora remained unflustered as he handed him several pieces of coal and a couple of sticks. "Here. You'll need these."

"For?"

Tora gestured to the half-finished snowman. "He'll need a face and arms."

Reluctantly, Kisame stood and made his way out into the snowfall. By this time the children had abandoned their snowball fight to take turns sliding down a high snowbank close to the road, Hitomi supervising. Hinata greeted him with a warm smile as he joined her and held out Tora's gift. Taking his offering, she settled the coal and sticks in their proper place on the snowman. Satisfied that it was finished, she stood back to survey their work.

"I haven't built a snowman in a long time. It looks nice. But it's missing something."

Kisame looked over the snowman with a frown. "I don't see what it could be."

"I know. He needs a name."

"You want to name a snowman?"

Her cheeks pinkened a little, but she was determined to stick by her idea. "Sure, why not?"

"You don't think that's a little silly?"

"Well, yeah. But it's just a snowman. So... what should we call him?"

Kisame thought for a long moment before he answered with a grunt. "Iceheart."

She tilted her head slightly as she perused her handiwork again. "That's a great name for a snowman. Iceheart it is."

"It's a horrible name for a snowman."

Hinata slid her cold, wet hand into his, enjoying the warmth of him as she intertwined their fingers. "No. It's perfect."

At her touch the mood that had been hovering over him all morning evaporated. There was just something about her very existence that reached out to him, soothed him. He didn't understand it, and certainly couldn't explain it, but he couldn't deny its presence altered his life. Tora might be overly optimistic concerning his chances at obtaining happiness, but of all the things in the world he believed in fighting for, wasn't Hinata most worth the effort? The answer was so obvious it didn't even bear contemplation. He smirked down at her as he lifted their hands to graze his lips over the back of hers.

"If you say so."

Nami came out on the porch then, wrapped in her pink house robe. She started to call out that breakfast was ready, but stopped when she saw Kisame and Hinata standing by the snowman, holding hands. Instead, she glanced at Tora who nodded his understanding and ushered his family inside quietly, followed by Hitomi and her son. The elder kunoichi watched the scene in her yard for a few moments, a knowing smile ghosting around the corners of her mouth. Then she turned and went back inside, shutting the door without a sound.

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A/N: I guess you could call this the drabble of drabbles. It was written for a Christmas writing exchange between my sister and our friend. The prompt was impromptu/unusual snowman building. I seemed to be hovering around an actual point somewhere in the middle, but I think it wound up being more inane fluff than anything. And of course, the title only makes sense if you are following my story Submerged. This scene falls within that 'verse, but would not fit anywhere in the storyline, since Hinata's stay at Nami's takes place in the summer. Oh well, at least I'm writing _something_ , lol. Call it a step in the right direction.


End file.
